The Big Four-Oh Will Be The Best One Yet
by Katta
Summary: Gideon informs Nate that it's his birthday. Thrilled with the news, he invites the team to celebrate with him.


Author's Notes:

Obviously there will be huge team changes in season 4, but since I don't know exactly how that will play out, this fic has the team from the end of season 3 (with Amaya back in her own time).  
Thanks to Thette and Keysburg for the beta!

* * *

As usual, Nate was stirred awake by a 'ding!' from Gideon. Only this time, instead of a cheerful "Good morning!" she followed up with an equally cheerful "Happy birthday!"

He blinked a couple of times to clear his eyes. "What?"

"In your personal timeline, it is 567 days since you joined the crew. Which makes today your birthday."

A slow grin spread over Nate's face. "Really?"

"Yes!"

"And not just any birthday either," he said.

"Your fortieth."

"The big four-oh." He leaped out of bed and reached for his robe. "Patch this through to everyone, Gideon. Good morning! This is Nate. You're all invited to my birthday party tonight. It's going to be awesome. Be there or be square. Actually, also be in the galley in half an hour, because we're having a birthday breakfast. Donuts and cake for everyone. Gluten free, so Ray, you'd better have some too. You're not playing health nut on my birthday."

After making the call, Nate went to answer a different call, and then straight to the galley, figuring he could replicate the food before anyone got there. This turned out to be a miscalculation. Ray was already present, fully dressed – as was Wally, who was buzzing around the room as a golden blur decorating everything in sight, though he stopped when Nate entered.

"Happy birthday!" they both said, and Ray filled in, "You really should have told us it was coming up."

"I agree," Wally said. "I don't mind being pressed for time, but it's not fair on the others."

"I didn't even know until Gideon told me!" Nate said. "And this is great!"

There were already multicolored balloons hanging from the ceiling, streamers dripping from the table, and tealights in bowls of water. Nate decided on a strawberry cheesecake along with the traditional chocolate donuts. Then he got started on more regular breakfast stuff like cereals, sandwiches, eggs, and hot and cold drinks for everyone.

Zari turned up as he was working the replicator. Like him, she was still in her robe, and she nabbed a donut from the tray right away. "Mm. That's delicious. Happy birthday!"

"Thank you! Don't start on the cake – I want everyone to be here."

Sara took a little longer, but was impeccably dressed when she did turn up. Mick's clothes were the ones he'd been wearing the day before, but at least he'd put them on, and he handed Nate an unopened bottle of beer in exchange for a slice of cake.

"So how old are you, anyway?" Wally asked around a mouthful of cake.

"40! Big milestone!"

"No midlife crisis for you, huh?" Zari asked.

Nate shushed her. "We don't use the M word. You're going to jinx it."

"Jinx what?"

"The wonderful fact that we – " he raised both index fingers for emphasis " – are still alive. At all."

They all fell silent, no doubt remembering all the times things could have turned out differently. _Had_ turned out differently, for some of the people no longer on the ship.

The mood got so somber that Nate had to continue. "Anyway, I didn't even get to _have_ birthday parties until I was seventeen and in college. Two years younger than everyone else, felt like a dozen. Fortunately, I had some cool dorm mates, so it all worked out, but truth is, I've been playing to catch up ever since. And last year's birthday, as you all know, was terrible. Probably the worst birthday I've had."

Damn it, he was _not_ going to get mopey over Amaya. One birthday doing that was bad enough, he wasn't about to make it two. She was _fine_ , she was the one person among them guaranteed to live a long life surrounded by loving family, and she'd even saved her people, so the fact that he couldn't be with her, well, that was just...

He started speaking twice as fast to force the thoughts out of his brain through the power of words alone.

"And that's counting the one when I was eleven and my cousins got chicken pox, so they couldn't come and I had to spend the whole day with only grandma and my parents, who were quarreling all the time. Not even proper quarreling, just those icy cold polite barbs at each other. Ugh! Or when I was eight and hit my head, so Mom had me rushed off to the hospital in case I had intracranial bleeding. Which I didn't, but I still had to stay the night. Although, there were kids at the hospital, and we all celebrated together, so it was pretty good, all things considered. A bit like a birthday party, except everyone was wearing hospital gowns. I shouldn't count that as a bad birthday. Point is, this year is already better, and you guys are here for it, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth!"

They all stared at him. Possibly this wasn't the best crowd to try to sell the party-deprived childhood to. It had worked well in college, but here you had Ray, whose so-called childhood friends had been bullies, and Zari, who had grown up with dystopian religious persecution, and Mick, who had _killed_ his family.

Still Ray caught Nate in a warm hug and said, "I'm glad to be here for your birthday."

The hug turned into a pile-on as the others joined in. Wally was the one who started singing the Happy Birthday song, and everyone sang along, even Mick in low tuneless rumbles, and Gideon in a surprisingly pleasant mezzo-soprano. As choirs went, it was about the most bizarre, and beautiful, thing Nate had ever heard in his life.

When they were finished, Ray asked, "So, what do we do for presents?"

"If you give me a shopping list, I could get it done," Wally suggested.

Sara frowned. "Hmm, I have something else in mind. Gideon, could you drop me off in Japan in 1961?"

"Or Los Angeles, 1952?" Zari said.

Nate looked from one to another. "Guys, you don't have to bother..."

"Maybe we want to bother." Zari smirked at him and raised her eyebrows.

"It is no problem at all," Gideon assured them. "I can drop you off when and wherever and then set the pickup time a few hours later. Is there any place specific the rest of you want to go?"

Mick gave a non-committing, pensive sound. Wally looked vaguely puzzled.

"I guess I could go with Zari," he said.

Ray was silent for a moment, and then said, "Is there any chance you could make it more than a few hours. Like, maybe a month?"

The others all looked a little taken aback at this time frame for a mere birthday present.

"A month?" Nate protested. "Dude, that's overdoing it." A thought struck him, and he grabbed Ray's shoulder. "Anything could happen in a month. You could get _killed_ in a month. I'd never forgive you if you got killed on my birthday."

"I'm not doing anything _dangerous_ ," Ray protested. "Just... it may take a while, that's all. But it's a really good idea, I want to try it."

"There's no need to worry," Gideon said. "I can monitor Ray's timeline, and if there's any sign of danger, we can pick him up early."

"See?" Ray said.

Wally said, "Dude, I've got performance anxiety now."

Zari slung an arm around his shoulders. "Don't. You and me, LA. You do your thing, I'll do mine. It'll be fine."

* * *

It was a weird feeling, seeing them all go off without him to different times and locations. Mick skulked off without telling the rest of them where he was going, though presumably Gideon knew. The same was true of Ray, though Nate spotted him in the corridor still wearing his own clothes and carrying a sports bag, so presumably he wasn't going too far into history.

That sports bag made Nate nervous, the way it represented everything that could go wrong. As soon as the last person had been dropped off, he turned to Gideon and asked, "Can we bring Ray back now? We don't have to take them in order, right?"

"Of course I can. Though I have been monitoring all of their timelines, and there are no disturbances so far."

"Still. Please."

She obediently landed the ship, and after a few moments, Ray came rushing into the bridge. His shirt was wrinkled and one side of the collar stood up.

"Hi! Gideon, could you give me another week? I'm sure I'll be done by then."

"I shall give you two," said Gideon.

"Great! Hi, Nate. Happy birthday, again. I'll be right back."

Ray rushed back out, and the engines of the Waverider started rumbling as Gideon prepared for the mini-jump.

"Oh dear," she said suddenly.

"What? Did something happen?"

"It appears Mr. Rory is in a bit of an altercation."

Mick getting into fights was par for the course, but Nate was tense enough already that he asked, "Is he okay? Should I steel up?"

"I don't think there's any need. I'll just park a little closer than planned." After a pause, she added, "In fact, just stay in your seat and don't go into the corridors. I don't want the surprise to be ruined."

Nate threw his hands up, but did as told. There he remained while the ship whooshed around to pick up the rest of the crew, quite far back and forth in history judging by the nausea he felt – or maybe that was just nerves.

Around the fifth jump, Wally zapped into the room, only to fall flat on his back when the floor wasn't where it had been a moment ago.

"Little heads up, Gideon!" he called out, rubbing his behind. "You know, I never lose my balance on a bus anymore, but I still do on this thing."

"It goes a bit faster than a bus," Nate said.

"It's faster than _me_ , and that's saying something." Wally threw a glance at the monitor that Nate had been told not to peek at, and whistled. "Is that Ray?"

"Yes," Gideon said. "Judging by the parcel he's bringing on board, I believe he has finished his project."

"Meaning everyone's back on board." Wally clapped his hands together. "And the party's not until tonight. Have you thought of what you want to do until then?"

"Not really," Nate said. "I didn't even know it was my birthday until a couple of hours ago."

"Well, is there anything you've always wanted to do but couldn't? Because of the whole not being allowed out thing?"

Nate shrugged. "I'm a bit too old for the Burger King ball pit, and I already did Disneyland back in college."

"Aw. I would have liked to see Heatwave in Mickey Mouse ears."

The image was an appealing one, and Nate snorted, but he kept thinking. "I guess there's the adventure stuff, like parachuting or zip-lining, but with the kind of life we lead now, that hardly seems necessary."

"Well, isn't there anything in history you'd want to do? Extreme sports of ye olde time?"

"What, like jousting?" The thought struck Nate as he spoke, and he flew up from his seat. "We will rock you!"

Wally's eyes lit up. "Yessssss!"

Nate hit the comm. "Welcome back, everyone, and thanks for the effort you've all put in! I can't wait to see what you all got me, but since I'm going to have to, Wally and I are going back to medieval times to reenact _A Knight's Tale_."

Sara's voice came through. "I swear to God, Nate, if you two start an aberration, I'll throw your present in the trash compactor."

"Spoilsport," Nate said. "Relax, it'll be fine."

Zari's voice asked, "What's _A Knight's Tale_?"

"Okay, you're _definitely_ going. Anyone else ready to rock, joust, and party like it's 1199? Which, in a moment, it will be. Sit tight."

* * *

Jousting was a lot of fun, especially with the team backing him up with Queen vocals. In the end, everyone including Sara had come, and they'd taught the whole audience the proper thump-thump-clap, to great results. Even getting knocked off the horse had a special kind of charm, when you knew that every bruise would be cleared up with some steel-time sessions and Gideon's tender care. Nate hobbled back on board exhausted, dirty, and with a huge grin on his face.

After the second shower of the day, they all gathered in the galley to get some food, snacks and booze ready.

Sara handed her present over right away. "I didn't bother to wrap it," she said. "It's a little too obvious."

Nate turned the katana over in his hand. It looked brand new, but of course that wasn't any indication as to what era it was originally from. "Cool! Is it from a real samurai or something?"

"Actually, no. It's not even a real sword. It's the one Toshiro Mifune used in _Yojimbo_."

Nate gripped the sheath harder. "This belonged to Toshiro Mifune?"

"Strictly speaking, I guess it belonged to the film company. But yeah."

"Awesome! Thank you!" Nate hugged Sara tight, which was a bit awkward with the sword, but he didn't care. She laughed and gave him a few soothing pats before steering him off, like you would with an overexcited puppy.

Zari was next, handing him a flat package wrapped in brown paper. It felt like a 45 rpm single, which it was: a copy of Big Mama Thornton's recording of Hound Dog, signed by the artist.

"I figured, you've already got all the Elvis, so you should have the original."

He'd heard the version before – of course he had – but a YouTube video was one thing, and a record held by the lady herself something else entirely.

"Dude. Not a lot of things are cooler than Elvis, but this? This is up there. Thank you so much!"

Another hug, and then Wally was the one to step up, with a large paper bag and a sheepish expression.

"I didn't really get you anything meaningful like that. I just bought lots of stuff and wrapped it. I like opening presents, and I figured maybe you do to."

"After that backup singing you gave me, you don't have to apologize for anything, my man! And I love opening presents." Nate put the other stuff aside to focus on one of the little gifts, wrapped up in colorful paper with lots of tape. After some struggle and use of nails, the contents revealed themselves: a bar of soap.

The next one held a pea whistle, and Nate burst into laughter, peering into the paper bag. "How many _are_ there?"

"About fifty," Wally said with a shrug.

"You're insane, and I love you." Nate threw one arm around Wally's shoulders and ruffled his hair with the other hand. "I'm going to open all of them, but I figure I should let the others come between, yeah?"

Looking up, he caught the eye of Mick, who was holding a burlap sack, which he dropped unceremoniously on the table.

Inside, there were several papyrus scrolls, some looking relatively aged, but all pristine. Nate unrolled one at random, and saw that it was written in Greek, and appeared to be a play. A word caught his attention:

"Perrhaibides," he mumbled. "That's one of Aeschylus' lost plays. Where...?" He grabbed another scroll and unrolled that. There was a faint, stinging smell coming from the sack, which reminded him of something, though he was too excited by its content to think of what. "Journeys to the land of Punt. No fucking way! I'm going to learn the location of Punt? Where did you _get_ these?"

"Library of Alexandria," Mick said. "I asked Gideon where to get some nerdy history stuff for you without disturbing the timeline. This was her suggestion."

"You could say that it's from the both of us," Gideon chimed in.

"Thank you!" But the word 'Alexandria', as unbelievably _awesome_ as it was, had also provided a cause for that smell. Nate looked up at Mick, horrified. " _Please_ tell me you're not the one who burned the library down!"

"No," Mick growled, affronted. "I learned a few neat tricks from the guys who did, though."

"Sorry about that," Gideon said. "I thought it would be best if we picked up the scrolls as late as possible."

"Yeah. Good point." Nate took a few deep breaths to still his racing heart, and warned Mick, "Going in for the hug now."

Mick tolerated the hug and even gave a couple of back thumps in return, though it took only a couple of seconds for his muscles to tense up. Nate hurriedly backed off and gave him a final grin, before turning his attentions to Ray, who looked even more innocent than usual.

"Six weeks," Nate said. "I have to admit, I'm curious."

Ray smiled and handed over the present, which had a huge golden bow and was wrapped in something blue and gleaming that looked like paper but upon closer inspection was some material Nate couldn't identify.

Inside, there was a cardboard box, and inside the box a pair of gloves and something that resembled a swim cap with custom goggles.

"It's 22nd century VR equipment," Ray explained. He reached in and picked up a small green circle the size of a casino marker. "And here's the game. Custom made _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ , with fully immersive effects and AI-powered NPCs."

Nate stared down at the equipment, and then up at Ray. "You holo-noveled _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ for me?"

"More or less," Ray said. "Of course, game creation is much simpler in the 22nd century, but even so, it took a little longer than... oof!"

Okay, so that particular hug ended up more like a tackle. Nate patted Ray a couple of times on the shoulder to apologize.

"I officially have the best friends of anyone in the entire timeline," he said. "Wow. So. We've got food, snacks, and booze, gaming, reading material, music, prop weaponry, and 48-ish little fiendish packages from Wally to open. Gonna be a busy night. Let's get started!"

* * *

It really _was_ the best birthday ever, Nate concluded some hours later, slouching in the sofa, comfortably tipsy. Even better than Disneyland. He'd beaten the VR Nazis, learned the location of Punt (which wasn't at _all_ where he'd thought it would be), and was surrounded by tiny trinkets and mountains of paper from Wally's presents. There were still a few more left, though after the first dozen he had cheated and started using scissors.

Zari was having her turn with Ray's game, though she seemed to take a rather relaxed attitude to the whole thing.

"Sure," she said to the microphone in her cap. "I'll tell you all I know about the Ark."

"Zari!" Nate kicked her lightly in the shin, and she paused the game and removed her goggles.

"What?"

"You can't tell the Nazis about the Ark!"

"Why not? I've seen the film. The Ark melts their faces. What difference does it make if I try to stop them?"

"But Indy doesn't know that! You can't just skip the whole adventure!"

"Just roast the Nazis," Mick suggested.

"Roast them with what?" Nate asked.

"Torches. That's what I did."

Nate sighed, and Zari laughed.

"You play the game your way, and I'll play it mine. Ray, loving the details you put in the surroundings!"

Ray saluted her with his water glass. He really was making every other drink non-alcoholic, like you were supposed to.

Nate hadn't been. Maybe that was why his head was feeling fuzzy. But mostly he thought it was a side effect from the way his heart was swelling. These people surrounding him, tired and half-dazed with food and drink, and giving off the warmest vibe he had ever felt in his life.

Sara was sitting closest, and he patted her on the arm.

"Hey, Captain," he said. "Thanks for having me on the ship."

"Wow, you're drunk," she said. "Thanks for being on the ship. Are you enjoying your birthday?"

"So much," he declared. "So much..."

There were still five more little presents in the paper bag, and a half-full bottle of beer in front of him, but despite all that, this seemed like a good time to fall asleep.

And so he did.


End file.
